THIS first time was all about experience, said the Nets yesterday as, for lack of a second scoring option, they chose between a blindfold and cigarette for tomorrow night.

There is nothing anybody could have told them about being in the Finals that could have prepared them to get killed, except of course, for the wisdom of NBA decades, which was pounded home Sunday by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant for 71 points.

When the Nets finally got the stars out of their eyes in Game 3, they still were one star short. It took 23 shots by Jason Kidd for him to score 30 and the Nets still wound up minus-three on the scoreboard, which in the end was predictable for a more tangible reason than the two-time champs better knowing what it takes.

They do, of course, but that’s secondary to the Nets not having a secondary stud, which only about 29 of the last 30 years has been a requirement to win it all.

The Rockets, who didn’t need a complementing star to Hakeem Olajuwon because the Knicks didn’t have one to Patrick Ewing either, filled the void with Clyde Drexler and swept the callow Shaq and Penny Hardaway the following year. And the next time there won’t be two overwhelming presences on a Western Conference finalist will be when Shaq and Kobe get old and tired or tired of each other.

The estimated arrival of that cosmic shift is about 2011, so in the meantime, what do the Nets, who have emerged as the class of the classless East, do to close the gap besides work diligently on their offensive spacing?

Byron Scott, putting the cattle prod to Keith Van Horn when he had one of those nights that causes a coach to have a cow, went on record this season as saying the Nets need another horse. And nothing the coach saw on Sunday night changed his mind.

“That’s pretty much the case,” Scott said yesterday. “But I almost looked at it as two stars beating one-and-a-half because Kenyon Martin, a second-year player, really brought it [Sunday] night. He’s that other guy you can look to as a future star.”

You either see the glass as half-full or half-empty. There has been no tried-and-true formula developed by which Rod Thorn can ascertain how far Martin’s game will develop, which is why they pay the GM the big bucks, particularly since big bucks alone aren’t going to keep Kidd a Net past next summer.

A free-agent to be, he may run off with Tim Duncan or Tracy McGrady to try Shaq-busting from another venue. Theoretically, Martin is going to have to grow up fast enough to convince Kidd that the next time the Nets get to the Finals, the benefit of their experience will be good for more than one victory.

The clock is ticking, and it’s not Van Horn’s alarm clock. He would be the guy to go in a package for somebody like Denver’s Antonio McDyess, a former Kidd crony in Phoenix, except that Van Horn is making the maximum without maximizing his talent.

Dealing him to create cap room for McDyess, who can opt out of his deal next summer, is only slightly less likely than the Nets winning the next four games. In the meantime, Denver GM Kiki Vandeweghe, who faces losing McDyess for nothing, has said he will listen to trade offers. And one would think a package of Martin and Richard Jefferson would get something done.

It’s hard to like giving up Jefferson and Martin. It’ll be harder than that for the Nets to defeat any one of four Western teams that currently possess a dominating low-post scorer that New Jersey does not.

Sure, you can make the case that nobody is beating Shaq and Kobe anyway, the same argument you can make for disbanding the league the next few years for lack of intrigue. Please remember, however, that Chris Webber and Mike Bibby got a lot closer than the Nets are.